Innovating Like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs

Alain Dupas is an expert in space policies, technology, and strategies, and is the author of many books on the conquest of space.Jean-Christophe Messina, associate founder of Audalom [human resources consulting firm], is an advisor in coaching the transformation of organizations and territories through collective intelligence.Cyril de Sousa Cardoso, associate founder of Audalom, is an expert in management methods for innovative projects, and a specialist in the history of creativity and inventions.

The unstoppable rise of the famous GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) and others: NATU (Netflix, Airbnb, Tesla, Uber), is now the benchmark for corporate success in the twenty-first century. Two-figure exponential growth, high margins, public/private partnerships, diversification, venture capital: these are factors that European economies are struggling to integrate. So, how can we innovate like the Americans?

Three specialists come together here to analyze the phenomenon, and draw the most important lessons from it, in order to encourage great entrepreneurs in France who are capable of tackling both the conquest of space and the electric car, or commerce on a global scale, à la Amazon. One must first have a great unified vision, then define an innovation (which can be a business model just as much as a physical product) by focusing on its aesthetic quality, mastering the entire value chain it involves, organizing production while providing feedback in order to achieve an “interaction design,” and finally, by recruiting the best people under the leadership of a “great helmsman.” All of that is, of course, effective, but often comes up against more traditional corporate cultures that will have to, year in and year out, conceive of a future in our information society.

Midway between a deep reflection and a practical manual, a guide for twenty-first century innovators.